Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
" 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore,.
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,
Nameless here forevermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me---filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
" 'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.
This it is, and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is, I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you." Here I opened wide the door;---
Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word,
Lenore?, This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word,
"Lenore!" Merely this, and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping, something louder than before,
"Surely," said I, "surely, that is something at my window lattice.
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore.
Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore.
" 'Tis the wind, and nothing more."

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven, of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.
Perched upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door,
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly, grim, and ancient raven, wandering from the nightly shore.
Tell me what the lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore."
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning, little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door,
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."

But the raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered;
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before;
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster
Followed fast and followed faster, till his songs one burden bore,---
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore
Of "Never---nevermore."

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore --
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee -- by these angels he hath
Sent thee respite---respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, O quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore!"

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil!
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted--
On this home by horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore:
Is there--is there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me I implore!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil--prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that heaven that bends above us--by that God we both adore--
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore---
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore?
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting--
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! -- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming.
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted---nevermore!

Follow me? Follow me? That's good, that's good!
A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat!
-------------------------------------------
I like that Moon Photo you posted.

The lesser light

Dr. Neville Jones, Ph.D.

Scientific research on Geocentric Universe 2005 has led to the preliminary conclusion that the Moon does not just reflect sunlight, but must radiate its own light.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. (Gen 1:14-19 KJV)

It is very interesting that YeHVaH Elohiym, hallowed be His name, does not give specific identifiers to the two great lights, but simply calls them the greater light and the lesser light. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Adam was given the invitation to name them, nor that they were named by anyone prior to the Flood. In fact the first mention of either one of them by their present names occurs well after the Noachian deluge:

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; ... (Gen 15:12a KJV)

The lesser light, spoken of by YeHVaH Elohiym, hallowed be His name, is what we call the Moon. This name first appears three generations later still (in Genesis 37:9).

This all seems to indicate that no importance was attached to these lights, either by their Creator, or by the antediluvian earth. They simply lit up the day and the night and gave mankind a convenient calendar and sleep pattern.

Our heavenly Father says that what we now call the Moon is a light. What does this mean? According to Brown, Driver, Briggs and Gesenius (Hebrew English Lexicon, 1979), the original Hebrew word (whose Strong King-James-concordance-number is 3974) means, light, light-bearer, luminary, lamp. The word light is given the following definition in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: A body from which illumination emanates; the sun or other heavenly body (after Gen. i. 6) OE; an ignited candle, lamp, etc. OE; collect. candles, etc. used to illuminate a particular place OE.; a signal-fire or beacon-lamp, e.g. on a ship or in a light-house; hence, the lighthouse 1604. Furthermore, the same dictionary defines "emanate" as "1. intr. To flow forth, issue from, as a source." (N.B. OE refers to the period before c. 1150 A.D.)

The association of object and the light generated by that object is undeniable. In the same way as the light coming from the Sun has been produced by the Sun, so the light coming from the Moon must have been produced by the Moon.

That the Moon light is distinct from that of the Sun is very strongly substantiated by Yeshuwa' HaMeshiyach, when he says:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken ... (Mat 24:29 KJV)

It is the Moon, not the Sun, which is here said by Yeshuwa' to be the owner of the light coming from it.

Figure 1 is a picture of the full moon, and it can easily be seen that the illumination of its surface is completely even. However, if the Moon is spherical, then the light reflected from it would have a lambertian profile. In other words, it would be brightest in the centre of the disc and fall off as we move towards the edge.

Figure 1: The full Moon, showing no falling away in illumination over the surface.

This observation, which is graphically analyzed in Fig. 2, has already been put forward by Dr. James Palmer, and ably reviewed by Dr. Brandon Weakland.

Figure 2: The intensity of light reflected off the outer surface of a sphere would fall off towards the edges of the sphere.

The motion of the Moon in the firmament is synchronized with the ocean tides on the World, but in no way does the Moon cause those tides. This is a preposterous idea. In the same way, the phases of the Moon are somehow synchronized with the motion of the Sun in the firmament, but are not caused by sunlight reflected off the lunar surface. I cannot yet offer any form of explanation, but it seems clear to me that the whole cosmos operates in a finely tuned, harmonious way. The tides are synchronized with the moon, the Moon is synchronized with the Sun, the Sun and Moon are set in the firmament. The firmament rotates about the World. Hence, the firmament and World relate to one another with clockwork precision.

Summary

There is evidence to suggest that the Moon radiates its own light, rather than it being nothing more than a simple reflector of sunlight.
http://www.geocentric-universe.com/page80.htm

__________________
“...I realized I had to gain more knowledge to protect against evil and to protect myself from not becoming evil myself. This is our major goal in life...\" Terry Lee

fra_nothing wrote:
I swear that I reject the doctrine of the eternal ice.

A global dome [ ICE ] encases all that is in the universe. Its under surface is covered (or strategically embedded) with highly reflective water crystals (sample of shapes on p. 2). Obviously, such incredible designs are capable of sending innumerable scattered reflections...accompanied by a full range of spectrum colors for our Redshift Theorists to play with and continue to expand their Expanding Universe fantasy. Reflections from multi-angled facets of these precisely embedded crystals off of a comprehensible number of actual stars are sent to locations of non-luminous entities (e.g., our moon without the sun, asteroids, nebulae). There in the blackness of space where many are retro-reflected off of the crystalline dome and are seen or captured by spectrographic technology and are yet other innumerable reflections that are being counted as actual dim stars or "night lights" behind nebulae, etc. The thickness of this global "dome" overlaying the present universe is vaguely suggested in the Hebrew connotation of "firmament" (#7554) that we just saw, viz., "...to expand by hammering, by implication, to overlay (with thin sheets of metal)...spread abroad (...into plates)...." So, how thick?? "Hammering" and "thin sheets" suggest not thick at all...perhaps measurable in inches or a cubit or two.... Who knows? Whatever it is, it is certainly not a figure that plays any substantive role whatever in the overall thickness of the Biblical Universe.
http://www.fixedearth.com/Ssize%20and%20Structure%20Part%20II.htm

__________________
“...I realized I had to gain more knowledge to protect against evil and to protect myself from not becoming evil myself. This is our major goal in life...\" Terry Lee